The environment
Tony Abbott was going to plant trees to combat climate change. Now he threatens them by his cavalier attitude to our national parks. The ''green army'' will face confusion.
Jean Tansey, Berwick
I think it is time we sent Mr Abbott the Dr Seuss book The Lorax.
Bob Greaves, Mount Eliza
Next Mr Abbott will be telling us the Japanese whalers are the ''ultimate conservationists''.
Annie Wilson, Inverloch
Change, variability (''Environment boss quits, drops bucket'', 6/3) … With the documented effects on weather patterns, oceans, ice ...

It’s defeatist to say that some plants and animals should be allowed to become extinct. Here are five things we can do to help save them
David Lindenmayer
The Guardian, Thursday 20 March 2014
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/20/endangered-species-ecological-triange?view=desktop&commentpage=1
Endangered: the leadbeater's possum. Photograph: Healesville Sanctuary
Recently, there has been a lot of discussion in the scientific community about whether we should allow some species to go extinct. The argument put forward is that ...

18 March, 2014 10:45AM AEST. David Lindenmayer. Broadcast date: Tuesday 18 March
http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2014/03/18/3966103.htm
David is a highly-awarded professor of ecology, but came close to making a career as a footballer in The Netherlands.
Among his grand passions is the survival of the Leadbeater's Possum, the faunal emblem of Victoria.
The possum, he says, is at risk of being 'monitored to extinction', which would be nothing short of an "environmental disgrace".
David's latest enthusiasm is learning the complex and ...

March 14, 2014 Beau Donelly
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/conservation/forest-activists-ordered-to-rip-down-tree-house-20140314-34qji.html
Endangered: Hannah Patchett and others have been living in the Toolangi tree house to raise awareness about the threat of logging to the Leadbeater's possum. Photo: Simon Schluter
Conservationists have been ordered to rip down a tree house in a state forest north-east of Melbourne that was built to highlight the plight of Victoria's faunal emblem.
Mansfield Magistrates Court ruled on Wednesday that the bright red ...

Tom Arup. Environment editor, The Age. March 13, 2014.
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/fragile-corners-of-the-state-to-be-saved-for-wildlife-emblems-20140312-34mqz.html
Leadbeater's possum and the helmeted honeyeater (inset) will be the chief beneficiaries. Photo: Justin McManus
One of Victoria's most precious and fragile patches of the environment, home for two of the state's endangered animal emblems, will be protected in a new conservation network.
As part of efforts to restore flagging forest habitat, the state government has agreed to set up a new 2940-h...

Wednesday 5 March 2014. www.afr.com I The Australian Financial Review.
Talking Point. Mathew Dunckley.
Imagine a world where the state owns a school demolition business. It roams the countryside knocking down perfectly fine public schools chosen by the state government. This company then sells the rubble to merchants.
Not that anyone really wants to buy it, so the school-dozing company barely breaks evendespite government subsidies. The obscene arrangement is made on the basis that several hundred school rubble jobs are at stake. This patently ...

James Campbell. Sunday Herald Sun. February 23, 2014 12:00AM
http://m.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/vicforests-in-middle-of-battle-over-possums-and-timber/story-fni0fh8t-1226834677129
A leadbeater's possum at Healesville Sanctuary. Source: News Limited
IN the next few weeks the State Government will make a decision which is likely to seal the fates of leadbeater’s possums and Victoria’s native forest timber industry.
The possum, a cute critter and since 1968 Victoria’s faunal emblem, is in a bad way. No one is sure how many of them managed to ...

ABC Radio National
RN Breakfast, Friday 21 February 2014 8:17AM
Listen now or download - http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/forests-more-valuable-for-carbon-ex-treasury-official/5274300
A former senior Treasury officer has waded into the heated debate about the future of Australia's native forests.
Dr. Frances Perkins worked as an economist in Canberra for 30 years for Treasury, the Department of Foreign Affairs and at the ANU.
Dr. Perkins has launched a stinging critique of the economics of native forest logging, saying that the forests are more ...

Tom Arup. Environment editor, The Age.
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/royal-society-favours-park-to-protect-possums-20140215-32svk.html
The state's pre-eminent scientific organisation, the Royal Society of Victoria, has thrown its support behind the push for a new national park on Melbourne's doorstep to protect Leadbeater's possums and other threatened mountain ash forest species.
Scientific concern for the possums' survival has soared since the 2009 Black Saturday fires destroyed 45 per cent of their best habitat. Conservationists also blame logging in ...